


This is Halloween

by nakedrednailpolish



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Halloween, Pumpkins, Swan-Mills Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 05:21:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5116973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nakedrednailpolish/pseuds/nakedrednailpolish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Swan-Mills family carves pumpkins. Complete and total fluff. Happy Halloween!</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is Halloween

            “Be careful with those pumpkins, Henry. I’d rather not have pumpkin guts all over the floor.” Regina held open the door for Emma and Henry, who carried three pumpkins between them.

            “Don’t worry, Mom, I got it.” Smiling, Henry headed for the kitchen to deposit his pumpkins on the counter. Regina closed the door behind Emma and announced that she would change out of her cashmere sweater and into something more suitable for pumpkin carving. With a light peck to Emma’s cheek, she disappeared upstairs as Emma followed their son into the kitchen.

            Henry shed his coat and held his hand out for Emma’s leather jacket. She deposited her own pumpkin on the counter and her coat in his waiting hand before plugging her phone into the dock near the fridge. Setting the music to her Halloween playlist (featuring songs like Ghostbusters, Witchy Woman, Phantom of the Opera, and Everything at Once), she cranked up the volume so that Monster Mash blasted through the speakers. Satisfied with the music, she retrieved some old newspapers from the study to spread over the counter and floor.

            “Who do you think is gonna win the lawn contest?” Henry asked, lifting pumpkins so Emma could slide paper beneath them.

            “I dunno. Granny’s looked pretty spooky with all of those cobwebs.”

            Henry shuddered. “I think those might have been real cobwebs.”

            Emma laughed. “What about the skeletons? You think those are…” They both fell silent, remembering Ruby’s incredible squeamishness and that she’d actually killed several people as a werewolf. “You know what? Nevermind. I liked Marco’s theme.”

            “Those zombies looked pretty real for being made out of wood.”

            Emma grabbed a roll of paper towels from the counter as Henry pulled out the carving tools from a nearby drawer. “Yeah, he and August must have been working on them for at least a month.”

            “They’re super cool.”

            “I particularly enjoyed the Addams’s house,” Regina chimed as she entered the kitchen, sporting one of Emma’s old T-shirts and a pair of dark jeans. She crossed to the opposite cabinet and extracted a large bowl, giving Emma’s ass a quick squeeze in passing. Henry, from the other side of the island, remained oblivious as he pulled a pencil from his pocket and started sketching his idea onto the face of his pumpkin.

            “Doesn’t it look that way all year round?” he asked.

            Emma, who was retrieving pencils for Regina and herself from a nearby drawer, hesitated. “Wait a minute. The Addams family… they’re not _really_ …”

            Regina and Henry exchanged a look before turning their attention to the counter.

            “Ooookay then.” She passed a pencil to Regina, but just as they started to sketch, familiar music filled the room.

“Oh my gosh, I love this one!” She jumped up from her place at the counter to turn up the volume, the intro from _Thriller_ pumping through the speakers. For a bit, the three worked silently, bodies swaying and shoulders jerking in time with the music, but when the chorus played, Emma couldn’t hold it in any longer.

            “Cause this is thriller! Thriller night!” she sang, dropping her pencil and lifting her arms to the right, left, and twice to the right. Henry joined in, and they both moved their arms left, right, and left twice more.

            “C’mon, Mom!” Henry beckoned.

            Regina shook her head, smiling at their antics. “I’m perfectly content to watch you two.” She set her pencil down and leaned against the counter behind her. She wasn’t much for dancing, but loved watching her son and girlfriend rock out to the music.

            Emma closed her eyes and swung her arms back and forth, singing at the top of her lungs. Henry, behind her, was doing some complicated move with his feet, and his head bopped along to the music. Regina chuckled as they sang the chorus once, twice more, before breaking out into an eerie overture on top of the music.

            They held their hands up like they were claws, creepily reciting the words as they contorted their faces into horrific expressions. After teasing each other, they moved onto Regina, who had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. They crept on either side of her and made faces, breaking out into evil laughter as the song ended.

            As the next song began to play, they looked at her expectantly for a reaction.

            She raised her brows and grinned. “Cute.” She ruffled Henry’s hair – causing him to duck away – and pecked her “monstrous” girlfriend on the lips. They set to work on their pumpkins.

            “Violet said she really liked Archie’s place,” Henry announced, continuing their previous conversation.

            Emma smirked as Regina scowled. Recently, everything had become, “Violet _this_ ,” and, “Violet _that_.” The mothers almost knew more about Violet than their own son, as Violet’s opinions on various topics always seemed to overshadow Henry’s. The girl’s favorite movie was currently _The Nightmare Before Christmas_ , which Henry had shown her last week in the spirit of Halloween.

            “Yeah, Nightmare is a classic theme,” Emma replied.

            “Do you have everything you need for your costume?” Regina tried to ask casually. In an effort to look good in front of Violet, Henry stubbornly refused to let his mom poof him into a costume this year. He and Violet decided to go as Jack and Sally from Nightmare and get their costumes themselves.

            Emma thought it was adorable that her son and his potential girlfriend were acting all coupley. She’d tried to reassure Regina, and while the brunette understood her son’s reasons for not letting her help, it didn’t keep her from curiously asking about it, ready to offer her magical assistance if he needed it.

            “Almost,” Henry said, picking up a knife cut a hole in the top. “I found a pinstriped suit at the thrift store and Violet’s sewing pieces of fabric together for her dress.” He grunted as he struggled to carve the pumpkin.

            “What about the mask? I can make you both the best –”

            “Relax, Mom. We’re making our masks this weekend. They’re going to look great.” At Emma’s pointed look, he added, “Thanks for the offer, though.”

            In an effort to turn the discussion away from himself, he asked, “What do _you guys_ think you’re going as this year?”

            Emma pursed her lip as she started cutting her own pumpkin. “Well… we did the queen and her knight last year…”

            Regina shrugged, glancing at her girlfriend before resuming her sketch. “We can’t quite decide.”

            Henry rolled up his sleeves and stuck his hand in his pumpkin. “Ew…” he mumbled, drudging up a handful of seeds and pumpkin guts. He dropped them into the bowl. As he brought up a second handful, he corrected himself with a beam, “ _Cool_.”

            Emma followed suit. As she delved into her pumpkin, Regina appreciated the view her tank top provided of her muscled arms. Emma brought up her first handful and admired it. “Sweet,” she muttered before depositing the gunk in the bowl.

            “You guys could be ghosts,” Henry suggested, happily scraping his pumpkin for seeds.

            Shaking her head, Emma replied, “Nah, that’s too easy. And _way_ overdone.”

            “Vampires?”

            “No.”

            At Emma and Henry’s curious looks, Regina looked back down at her pumpkin and explained, “Let’s just say there’s been some bad experiences in the Enchanted Forest.”

           Letting the subject drop, Emma continued, "What about minions?”

            Sighing, Regina removed the top of her pumpkin and pulled out a lump of goop. “No. No way. I told you last night. I’m _not_ going to dress up as one of those yellow freaks.”

            Emma’s eyes went wide. “Oo! You could be Scarlet Overkill!”

            “Who’s Scarlet Overki –”

            “Only the raddest supervillain ever! Then I could be a minion and you could be Sandra Bullock and then we’d match!”

            “Sandra Bullock?”

            “I thought you watched Minions with us?” Emma said.

            Henry shook his head, having moved on to carving his design. “That was the night she had to work late. Remember? She came in right at the end, said, ‘Oh, gods, not those yellow monstrosities again,’ and joined us later to watch Captain America.”

            Regina blushed at the quote.

            “Oh yeah, that’s right!” Emma said. Then she blinked, an idea suddenly striking her. “We could be superheroes! I’ll be Captain America and you can be Black Widow!”

            Scrunching up her face in thought, Regina paused.

            “I don’t think so.”

            “Aw, why not? You love tight leather!”

            Henry coughed, and Emma’s cheeks reddened.

            “I want to match you more. You know… complement you.”

            “You want to compliment me?” Emma asked, winking.

            It took all of Regina’s strength not to fling a handful of seeds and pumpkin guts at Emma’s face. She huffed. “You know what I mean. I want my costume to correspond to yours in a way that will signify our relationship. Like salt and pepper.”

            Emma sighed. “Salt and pepper? That’s so cliché.”

            “But it works,” Regina said, using a scraper to get as much gunk out of her pumpkin as possible.

“But, it’s boring. It’s been done before.”

            “Fine. But something like that?”

            “Hmm… We could be my parents.” Emma suggested with a smirk.

            Regina rolled her eyes, setting down her pencil and picking up a knife. “Oh gods, spare me the torture.”

            “Oh come on,” Emma urged, digging into her pumpkin with a smirk. “You’re a total doppleganger for Prince Charming.”

            Regina narrowed her eyes. “Excuse you?”

“Kidding! Kidding,” Emma chucked. “Hey! We could go as each other.”

            Regina glanced up, appreciatively watching Emma’s muscles flex as she dug inside the pumpkin.

            “That’s such a good idea!” Henry praised, eyes sparkling with excitement.

            Regina hummed, trying to imagine Emma in one of her pantsuits. “Perhaps.”

            Just then, the opening bars of “This is Halloween” began to play, causing Emma and Henry’s eyes to light up instantly. Emma set down her knife and lifted her arms into the air, wiggling her fingers in time with the creepy music. Regina glanced up, rolled her eyes, and continued carving, though the hint of a smile danced on her lips.

            Henry, on the other hand, got just as excited, opening and closing his palms as if casting a spell and singing the first few lines with his mother.

_Boys and girls of every age, would you like to see something strange?_

_Come with us and you will see, this our town of Halloween_

            Emma spun in a circle and continued singing, “This is Halloween! This is Halloween!”

            Regina watched her son and girlfriend put on a show. They brought up and lowered their voices, trying to sound like the monsters in the song. With mischievous smirks, they wiggled their fingers creepily and danced along to the music.

            Dancing closer to Regina, Emma barred her teeth, and widened her eyes comically, extracting a chuckle from the brunette.

_I am the one hiding under your bed, teeth grown sharp and eyes growing reeeed._

            She ducked out of the way as Henry rounded the island to tap his fingers on Regina’s shoulders, thrust his face into hers, and run his hands haphazardly through his dark locks.

_I am the one hiding under your stairs, fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair._

            Regina gently pushed him away with a grin. As the chorus approached, both Emma and Henry threw their arms above their heads and struck random poses.

_This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!_

            Both dancers continued singing and making gigantic gestures, much to the amusement of Regina, who stopped carving her pumpkin and leaned against the counter behind her to watch the performance. Henry hid behind the trash can at one point, and shortly after, both erupted into a loud, “Scream!”

            Then, they ducked behind the counter. Emma lifted her head and sang, “I am the clown with a tear-away face…”

            In a loud, rumbling voice, Henry popped up as Emma disappeared, growling, “Here in a flash and gone without a trace!”

            Finally giving in to her family’s wishes, Regina rounded the counter and softly chanted the next line:

_I am the ‘who’ when you call, ‘Who’s there?’_

            She reached down to ruffle both son and girlfriend’s hair.

_I am the wind blowing through your haaaair._

            The crouched figures rose, and the three of them continued the song, dancing and taking turns with lines, gesturing dramatically as they sang,

_La, la, la, la-la la, la, la, la-la la, la, la, la-la la, la-la la_

_Wheeeee!_

            Emma and Henry squealed, and all three broke into eerie cackling to emulate the monsters in the song. Emma found Regina’s throaty chuckle reminiscent of the Evil Queen she’d met when she travelled into the past, but soon, the trio’s monster-like screeching melted into real laughter.

            With only two more dance breaks, they finally finished carving their pumpkins. Afterwards, they cleaned the seeds of goop, prepared them with butter and salt, and put them in the oven. When they were done clearing their mess, they sat down to watch Beetlejuice, Henry snuggled next to Regina and Regina curled into Emma. Soon, the scent of baked pumpkin seeds wafted into the living room.

            And out on the porch sat three pumpkins – Jack from _Nightmare_ , a spooky, hissing cat, and a swan with a crown – lit by small magic candles.

 


End file.
